Chapter 163: Surplus to Requirements

Jason and Sophie continued their way through the city. More cautious than ever, they exposed themselves to long sightlines as little as possible. Sometimes they used narrow streets to hide themselves from above, at other times, rooftops, to hide themselves from below.

Helping them remain unobtrusive was the quiet nature of their essence abilities. Only the sound burst accompanying Sophie’s wind blade made any real noise and, compared to the cries of the monsters they fought, it wasn’t especially loud.

The evening of the day they had found the three dead leonids, something finally happened that they had been waiting for.

Party member [Neil Davone] has entered communication range.Voice chat with [Neil Davone] had been restored.Full [Party Interface] functionality has been restored to party member [Neil Davone].Party member [Neil Davone] has been located on ability [Map].

“Neil?”

“Jason?”

“Good to hear from you. Are you alright?”

“Yeah. I’ve got Jory with me, plus another guy who’s a pretty good front-line. We could use a good damage dealer, but you’ll do.”

“Oh, thanks for that vote of confidence. It’s just me and Wexler, here. Humphrey’s probably fine but I hope Clive’s alright.”

“Hello Sophie,” Neil said.

“Neil,” Sophie reciprocated. “We’ll need to figure out where we each are.”

“I’ve got that covered,” Jason said.

He pulled up his map, quickly locating Neil.

“Looks like you're east and a little south of us,” Jason said.

“This place has an east?” Neil asked.

“It may have been arbitrarily designated by my map power, I’m not sure. Find somewhere to hole-up and we’ll come to you.”

Jason and Sophie reoriented themselves, heading in the direction of Neil’s location on the map. They had been moving around for around ten minutes when they received a chat from Neil. It had the whispered tone that came with a communication sent silently, via a thought.

“Someone is here,” Neil’s voice came. “From the way they’re acting, I think they were following us and got thrown when we stopped to wait for you.”

“Hang tight and we’ll get there as fast as we can,” Jason said.

“What does hang tight mean?” Neil asked.

“Come on, you can get it from context,” Jason complained.

“Clear communication is important in tactical scenario,” Neil said.

“Boys, we can sort this out later,” Sophie said. “Asano, shut up. Neil, we’ll be as quick as we can.”

Sophie and Jason gave up on stealth for speed, rushing along streets as quickly as they could. Jason was no match for Sophie’s speed, even just using her abilities passively. Once she started using them actively, navigating the complicated terrain like it was a track course, only his shadow teleporting allowed him to keep up. At each junction he checked his map and kept them on the right heading.

“They found us,” Neil said through voice chat.

“We’re getting closer,” Jason said. “A few more minutes.”

Jason and Sophie had no more speed to pour on as they raced through the overgrown streets.

“We’ve got a fire user, a wind user and a big guy with a hammer,” Neil kept them updated. “Jory is laughing like a loon for some reason I don’t under… oh, damn.”

“What happened?” Sophie asked.

“Give me a second,” Neil’s hurried voice came back.

“We’re doing okay,” Neil said a few moments later, his light with surprise. “Keane, that’s a our front-liner, is holding off their big guy just fine. “The two women with the elemental powers are throwing everything at us but Jory is soaking up all their elemental attacks and using them to fuel his own abilities. What’s that guy doing, spending his days in a clinic?”

“Just hold on,” Jason said. “We’ll be there soon.”

“Shouldn’t be an issue,” Neil said. “They just keep throwing elemental attacks… what in the world is that?”

“Neil?” Jason asked.

“The other adventurers are running,” Neil said. “There’s a wave of some ghost-looking things coming down the street. I think they might be those things the shadow guy warned us about.”

“The vorger,” Jason said.

“Yeah,” Neil said. “The people we were fighting had movement powers and bolted, but we can’t move faster than these things are going.”

“Regroup and protect each other as best you can,” Jason said. “Sophie and I should be well-equipped to handle them. Probably.”

“Probably?” Neil asked.

“It’s better than definitely not.”

Jason and Sophie spotted the vorger before they spotted Neil, Jory and the other man they picked up. The vorger looked like something between a fog bank and a swarm, their forms white and ethereal, taking all manner of shapes. Some looked like animals, others monsters or even humanoid shapes, although Shade had told them the shape didn’t matter. Whatever their form, it was the touch of the creatures that would warp and distend flesh.

Jason and Sophie got a look at the results, sprinting past what used to be a person, judging from the pieces of armour and scraps of cloth on the hideous blob of flesh. They didn’t pause, continuing the rush to help their companions.

“I think we found one of your run-off adventurers,” Jason told Neil through voice chat. “The big guy, from your description. I guess he wasn’t as fast as the others.”

In the midst of the vorger swarm, Neil was alright for the moment, but things were rapidly getting worse. His mana shield power held off any vorger who rushed at him but each time the bubble-like barrier flashed, it ate away at his mana to keep him safe. Keane had left his sword in its sheath. His hands were both occupied by a large shield, a translucent, blue object that was obviously a magical construct. He used it to intercept and push back the vorger as they swept in at him and Jory, who was crouched down beside him.

Jory’s leg had been brushed by one of the creatures and was locked into a folded position, forcing him to kneel down. In front of him, vials and little bottles were lifting themselves out of his belts and pockets, disgorging liquids and powers to float together. Unlike the black blob that had formed the last time he used the ability, this one was a shimmering, pale blue.

“I’ll show you flesh warping,” he muttered and the blob streamed into his mouth. His body grew skinny and long, his limbs stretching out. Sweat oozed out of his skin, coating him in a shimmering oil. He stood up, his elongated leg no longer afflicted. He started flailing his arms around like whips, the vorger dissolving into nothing at the touch of the oil coating Jory’s limbs.

For his part, Neil decided to act before his mana was so drained he could no longer cast spells. Even as the vorger continued lashing themselves against his mana shield he started chanting.

“Come forth, wheels of fortune; let destiny, fair and foul, be brought upon those here to receive it.”

In the air above Neil’s had, three stone wheels, translucent and immaterial, came into being. They were stack horizontally atop one another and each had a series of images inscribed on their edges. Most of the images were of vorger, but each wheel also had an image of Neil, Jory and Keane’s faces.

Ability: [Reels of Fortune] (Prosperity)

Spell (this ability has variable subtypes, contingent on effect).Cost: High mana.Cooldown: 10 minutes.Current rank: Iron 7 (41%).Effect (iron): Conjures three immaterial reels. Channel mana into the reels to generate random effects on random individuals within the area. If an individual is affected more than once by the same use of the reels, the effect is increased for each reel.

Just conjuring the reels had eaten a good chunk of his dwindling mana and he immediately spent even more, channelling it into the reels. By their nature, the reels had mixed reliability at best, but as Neil’s mana plunged, he was betting everything on how much the vorgers’ numbers stacked the odds.

He had chosen to use the reels, not just for its potential power but because they were so outnumbered by the vorger that the odds had become skewed. This was borne out as the wheels stopped turning and the images on the front lit up, each one showing a vorger.

Strange lightning shot out of the wheels a black streak limned in white, chaining through the vorger, one to another. Each vorger struck burst into nothing, like mist under the bright sun. For each vorger that dissolved, a matching image disappeared from each of the wheels, but there were so many of them that the difference was slight. As the vorger rapidly died, Neil and everyone else was rejuvenated as the dying vorger triggered Neil’s aura power.

Ability: [Spoils of Victory] (Prosperity)

Aura (recovery, conjuration).Cost: None.Cooldown: None.Current rank: Iron 8 (19%).Effect (iron): Allies within your aura recover mana and stamina for each enemy that dies within your aura, a well as a minor healing effect. You can loot enemies that die within your aura.

Neil’s depleting mana was noticeably replenished as the vorger rapidly died. With his mana pool restored, Neil’s mana shield was, once again, a safe refuge from the ghostly creatures. It also helped Keane, who had suffered a number of vorger strikes, in spite of his conjured shield. The healing uncramped joints that flesh-warping attacks had locked up.

Neil channelled more mana into the wheels and they started turning again.

While Neil and Jory were in the process of turning the tables, Jason and Sophie finally reached the fight, ploughing straight in at full speed. Jason’s sword was already out, slashing away at the ghost-like vorger.

Special attack [Leech Bite] has inflicted [Bleeding] on [Vorger].[Vorger] is immune to [Bleeding].[Bleeding] does not take effect.Affliction immunity has triggered an effect on weapon [Dread Salvation].Weapon [Dread Salvation] has gained an instance of [Spell Breaker].

Instances quickly stacked up on Jason’s sword and it was soon slashing apart the vorger with ease while Sophie’s unarmed attacks had a similar effect. She was also seemingly impervious to the vorgers’ touch, while Jason enjoyed his own protection.

Special attack [Vorger’s Touch] has inflicted [Vorger’s Flesh Warp] on you.You have resisted [Vorger’s Flesh Warp].[Vorger’s Flesh Warp] does not take effect.You have gained an instance of [Resistant].

As Jason and Sophie appeared in the fight, their faces also appeared on the reels, but the second turn of the spell also ended in triple vorger. This time an energy wave rolled out of the reels and touched the closest of the vorger. Its translucent body turned from white to black, then it exploded. A nearby vorger caught in the explosion similarly started turning black and exploded in turn. The effect kept chaining until it finally petered out, the vorger spreading out until the explosions no longer caught them. Between the explosions and the previous chains of dark lightning, Neil had eradicated a full third of the vorger swarm.

The next turn of the reel rested on images of two vorger and a picture of Jory’s face. An explosion in the midst of the vorger took out a further chunk of their number, although not close to as many as the three reel effects.

[Human] has been affected by [Reels of Fortune]. Duration of ability [Alchemical Abomination] has been increased.

The vorger fought to the last but accomplished little. Jory’s new form was as immune to their attacks as Jason and Sophie, all three laying into the vorger with abandon. The magical protections of Neil and the other man, Keane, still held, protecting them until the fight was over.

In the end, Jason and Sophie felt rather surplus to requirements. They shredded their share of the ghost creatures but most were eradicated by Neil’s spell, followed by Jory and his weird shape-changing power. Once the vorger were gone they regrouped, relieved to have weathered the ordeal so well.

“Good to see you,” Jason said, clapping Neil on the shoulder as Jory greeted Sophie warmly.

“We should find a quiet place to spend the night that isn’t here,” Jason said.

“We need to be careful,” Neil said. “Those people are still around somewhere.”

“I think we might have passed one who didn’t run fast enough,” Sophie said. “There was a big blob of flesh back there that I think used to be a person.”

“He got killed?” Neil asked.

“The vorger do not kill,” Shade said, his shadowy figure suddenly standing next to them. “They alter.”

They all turned in the direction from which Jason and Sophie had come. Shambling towards them was a flesh monstrosity, a four-legged, asymmetrical mound that as much undulated forward as walked.

“Wexler,” Jason said, looking at the creature. “Am I imagining things, or is that thing a lot bigger than when we ran past it?”